Syrian security forces tortured 13 to death
Syrian security forces tortured to death 13 people last year, most of them Kurds, an independent human rights watchdog claimed yesterday.
The Association for Human Rights in Syria said that some of the alleged victims died in custody after unrest in the mainly Kurdish north-east in March last year.
“Five Kurds died under torture after the demonstrations in Qamishli,” the group reported. “Six more Kurds died in suspicious circumstances while performing their national service and two [Arab] Syrians died in offices of the interior ministry’s security branch.”
The watchdog said the deaths were a very serious breach of the International Convention against Torture which Syria signed in July 2004.
The German media are all up in arms over this horrible crime against human rights…
NOT!
No mention of this news so far in the German media.
Well, actually – there are quite a number of reports on torture in Syria in the German media. A search request (April 8, 2005) for “Syrien” (Syria) and “Folter” (torture) at Google News Germany turned up several news items on the alleged collaboration between the Bush administration and Syria: the US government is accused of sending prisoners suspected of terrorist activity to countries such as Syria or Egypt where torture seems to be an accepted investigative method (1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) There is just one report on Syrian torture without reference to US involvement.
German biased journalism as usual: Human rights abuses are condemned if the US government is involved. If not, if it’s just plain vanilla torture without connection to the US government, reporting hits a dull streak.
